The Daily Mustard

The FL meme:

1. Copy and paste your friends list.
2. If you've friended multiple journals by the same person, delete all but the "main" one.
3. Bold the name of everyone you know or have met in "real life."
4. Italicize the name of everyone you've spoken to on the phone. (Any talk at all on the phone counted here.)
5. Underline the name of everyone you've chatted with online (AIM/IRC counted here).
6. [Bracket] people you've known, online or off, for more than five years.
7. Turn family members red.
8. Pass it on.

9chambers, angelictears85, [anher], ariston, canards, [caoimhinolorica], [collinsmom], detroitpainter, elwe, gen, inhim, jadeejf, jet52286, ladytiffanyanne, orangesodapop05, philkid3, prchngrl, prester_scott, revmary, seraphimsigrist, [siege], [stryck], thais, [that_guy_zach], zaimoni, zilvar

Oh, well. It helps me practice my HTML.

I'm thinking of launching a Boy Scout troop here at the church this fall. We have a lot of kids entering middle school right now, and providing program for them (and their families) is a top priority. I've been a Scoutmaster several times before, so that'd be cool. The problem is, Boy Scouting takes an incredible amount of time and energy -- far more than Venturing or Cub Scouting.

If there are enough kids to do this, then we have to promise them the whole wad, not just bits and pieces of the program. That means that other weekend-crowding things at church have to be carefully managed to make room for this new program. And I've still got to leave enough room to breathe. I have finally learned that you just can't schedule something every weekend -- especially things take all that prep time, putaway time, physical/mental energy . . .

So Boy Scouts would have to jostle for space with Confirmation Class, Youth Fellowship, Kids Club, Missions Conference, Advent/Christmas, Holy Week/Easter, Venturing, and Cub Scouts. (Ack!) Now, to my sorrow, our Venture Crew is going to be scaling back this year. Our active membership is getting a bit long in the tooth, and we're not attracting new members. Next Summer's trip to Africa will probably be our swan song. And I've already said I just can't do Cubs like I did last year -- somebody else has to step up if that program is to survive. So there's some room there. But, wowser -- it's still going to be tough to fit all this in!

So, I'm going to have to schedule a whole year at a time, with sufficient Saturdays off locked in and regular days off during the week. After that, people who want yet more from me are going to have to take No for an answer. That's always been tough for me to do. But my health will crack and I'll go down for sure if I don't do it -- not to mention all my programmatic promises going bust.